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Drug bust valuations raise questions
The Sri Lanka Navy recently announced the seizure of narcotics from a fishing vessel valued at about Rs. 3 billion (around US$ 9.6 million). Only days earlier, the authorities reported another detection worth about US$ 4.8 million.
These large figures raise a few questions. In a country where foreign reserves are said to be about US$ 7 billion, from where do drug traffickers obtain such substantial amounts of foreign exchange to finance these purchases.
Equally puzzling is the domestic demand. With a large segment of the population struggling with the cost of living, who exactly is spending billions of rupees on illicit drugs unless the drugs are for export.
While the authorities deserve credit for these detections, some clarification on how such valuations are calculated would help the public better understand the true scale of the problem.
Upali Weerasinghe
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